


it's the scientific method

by Stellonia



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, F/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, space camp - Freeform, theyre camp counselors
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-20 15:15:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11338077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stellonia/pseuds/Stellonia
Summary: Q: What is the Summer Fun Science Camp?A: Summer Fun Science Camp ® is a week long camp for children ages 9-12. Kids learn to work as a team as they participate in realistic mission scenarios, train like an astronaut, and do hands on science experiments.During their stay, campers will be overseen by our finest camp counselors, who have trained and worked in the IPRE themselves. Anything that a Junior Explorer may need, our team will be sure to accommodate them.





	it's the scientific method

**Author's Note:**

> hi i'm really excited abt this fic? s/o to the blupjeans discord for helping me so much with this, please enjoy!

“So now that we all know the rules to the Summer Fun Science Camp - I wanna know, are you ready to have an amazing summer? ”

The sound of twenty eight children cheering and clapping fills the small room. Seeing these kids eager to learn about science, it reminds him why he does this job. He could never pick a favorite part of camp, there are just too many to choose from, but this certainly is on his list. 

“I’m Camp Director Davenport, and I’m in charge of making sure you have the best week ever,” He says, then motions to the six standing behind him. “And the ones who will make sure that happens are your camp counselors! Come up and introduce yourselves.”

This part was _not_ on his list.

“I’m Magnus Burnsides! I’m pretty much the best - okay, maybe not, but close!” Magnus says with his usual vigor and charm. “Stick with me, and I’ll make sure you have the most funnest time ever!”

Magnus takes his place back in the line, and gives Barry a pat on the back to shove him forward. He stumbles towards the microphone and swallows.

“Hi, I’m Barry Bluejeans.” The children all giggle - they always do, he’s learned to stop and let them. “Y-yeah, that’s my real name y’all. But I went to these camps every year when I was a kid, and I hope to inspire you kids to pursue your dreams in STEM! So, uh, have fun!”

He retreats just as awkwardly as he came in, and after seeing the kids reactions, decides to test out a different introduction next time.

“Hello, my name is Lucretia. I’m currently writing a book about the history of the IPRE and this camp. I’m looking forward to getting to know you.”

It’s the same thing she’s always said. She once told him that she was a contradiction - a writer who struggles to find the words when put on the spot. So she sticks to her script. Barry thinks he would benefit from doing the same, but a stubborn part of him insists he hasn’t found his spiel.

“What’s up losers, I’m Taako, y’know, from TV?” Taako flips up his heart shaped shades - which are in violation of their dress code, but he isn’t a snitch - and gives a dazzling smile. “I’m like - crushing this whole life thing? So if you need general life advice, come to cha boy. Also science is rad and stuff. Peace!”

He’s envious of Taako, in the way he can just pull shit out of his ass and kids still love him. Or fear him? Barry’s never been sure. 

“I’m Lup, his older sister, the better twin, and your lab partner for the week!” 

And then there’s Lup.

It’s been a month since he realized he had a thing for her, and a month since he decided he wouldn’t do anything about it. For a lot of reasons, it could ruin their working dynamic, he didn’t want her to think they were just friends because he wanted to date her, he’d be far to nervous to ask anyway, and the primary reason: she was way out of his league. If she was in the MLB, then he was on a tee ball team.

And he was okay with that, if his pining ever got too bad he could just bite the bullet and ask her. But he’s done his fair share of pining. He’s got this under control.

“If you think this week is just gonna be all nerdy boring stuff, then think again, suckers, because you’re wrong!”

She holds up the mic, as if about to drop it, and turns to face their Captain. She winks at him, never planning to actually let it fall, but laughs at the horror on his face.

When she smiles like that, he’s not so sure he’s got this under control. 

“Uh, I’m Greg Grimaldis, and I’m the best counselor,” he says sleazily in a sleazy voice. Lup is a tough act to follow, but he’s glad it had to be Grimaldis, because he was going to fail anyway. “Don’t do anything to annoy me and we’ll get along. “

He grabs the mic and drops it onto the floor, causing a startling feedback. The kids don’t even think it’s funny. Davenport is fuming. He rushes to go pick it up. 

“Testing. Does this work? Or-” Davenport says into a dead mic, before it suddenly turns back on. “Ah! Sorry for those tech issues. A-anyway, please go up to the stage, where your counsellors will help you get your name tags and schedules.”

Barry sits down on a folding chair, and reviews the documents. Greg walks towards a seat, until Davenport stops him.

“No sir - we’re gonna have a talk,” he sternly says. “Uh, Lup, could you go help Barry out with the sign in table?”

“Suuure,” she says with a shit eating grin. She sits beside him and idly rifles through their pamphlets. 

“It sucks that Grimaldis stole your joke,” he tells her. “ For what it’s worth, yours was funnier by far.”

“Thanks B, but it’s like water off a ducks back. Davenport is gonna make him pay for that equipment, and I’m willing to have my bit plagiarized if it means he gets in trouble,” she smirks. 

“Hello, random strangers!” A young boy they both instantly recognize says. He’s been at every session this summer, and has become quite the counselors pet. 

“And what’s your name?” Lup asks him, not looking up from her papers.

“Miss Lup, don’t do that horseshit-”

“No swearing, young man! After all,” Barry giggles, and gives Lup a look.

“A true Junior Explorer doesn’t use obscene language!” All three of them say in unison.

“I’m sorry, I know you have the swear jar in the counselor's lounge - does that mean I have to pay up? I just wanted to make a fun goof and now I’m holding up the line - you know my name! You - you do remember it, right?”

“Of course we do, Angus,” Barry says, handing his name tag.

“We couldn’t forget it if we wanted too, little man,” Lup adds, flinging a schedule at him.

He catches it with ease. “Okay, thank you! I’ll get out of your hair now.”

“Scram!” Lup shoos him away. Once he’s out of earshot, she quietly says. “Love that kid.”

-

Magnus plays a galaxy print ball as Lucretia and Barry futilely try to get the kids to make a circle. They end up in a weird oval shape, which they’re just gonna have to deal with.

“Okay, kids! Before we start our tour of the museum, we’re gonna do a ice breaker game. It’s simple, I’ll show you,” he loudly says. “My name is Magnus, I’m 22 years old, and I have a husky named Morko.” 

He tosses the ball to Lucretia harder than was necessary. “Hi Magnus! My name is Lucretia, I’m 20 years old, and I like to paint. Do you all get it? Say hi to the person that gives you the ball, tell us your name, age, and a fact about you, then _gently,_ ” she says bitterly, “throw the ball to another person.”

“Hi Lucretia! My name is Abby, I’m 11 years old, and I like to bake!” She aims her ball at a short girl with red hair, but a younger boy leaps to grab it.

“My name is Mooki-” he yells, before the red head shushes him.

“Mookie, don’t be rude, you need to say hi to Abby!”

“Hi Abby!” He says quickly. “I’m Mookie, I’m 7 years old, and I like root beer!” He throws the ball directly at the redhead, apparently with some force as she groans.

“Are you okay?” Barry asks. She gives an unconvincing thumbs up.

“Don’t worry about me,” she sighs. “Hi Mookie. I’m Mavis, although you already knew that, and I’m 12 years old. My stepfather, Merle, works as a nurse here, which is why my brother is here despite being below the age limit.”

She looks uncomfortable, and throws the ball to Barry. “Don’t you wanna tell us a fact about yourself, Mavis?”

“Oh! Yes, I - I like to read.”

“Thanks. Hi Mavis, my name is Barry. I’m 24 years old, and I’m working on on my masters degree in chemistry.”

He weakly throws the ball in Lup’s general direction, although she’s at the other end of the oval, and has to walk to retrieve it. “Hi Barold, I’m Lup. I’m 23 years old. When I was a 10 a fire demon came into my bedroom and gave me the gift of conjuration.”

He tries to hold back his smile. Lup always says stuff like this, and he does his best to keep up the illusion.

“Nuh-uh!” A young boy, his nametag says his name is Tom, petulantly said.

“It’s true!” Taako chimes in. “I’ve seen it myself, she once burned off a truly unfortunate haircut had in middle school.”

That part is true - albeit, done with matches instead of a magical ability. The resulting hairstyle was equally bad, but Taako embraced it. Something about it being ahead of it’s time. 

“Then _show_ us,” Abby says. She shakes her head with a tut tut tut.

“No can do, kiddo,” she says grimly. “Safety first. Last time I used my powers here, I almost hurt my dearest Barold. Right, B?”

“Y-yea! It was a bad deal, y’all,” he says. 

He thinks that she does have a sort of power. She’s made his cheeks burn and set his heart on fire.

-  
Grimaldis and Lucretia are on duty for watching over the kids at lunch - something none of them envy. The cafeteria is the _worst_ , and they’re all happy to spend their break in the lounge. Taako’s making them all sandwiches, with the help of Angus. 

“So, you know how boring science day is tomorrow?” Taako says.

“Okay, first of all, the entire camp is a science camp! But the curriculum for tomorrow is not boring, it’s what got me-”

“Got you interested in science and the IPRE. We’ve all heard the story, Barold,” he interrupts.

“For what it’s worth, I really like the day 2 activities!” Angus says cheerily.

“It’s not worth much, Ango,” Taako says. “Anyway, lemme hit you with this: we go and buy a bunch of moon shoes. It’s educational because then it’ll show them what being on the moon is like.”

“Moon shoes aren’t real science, Taako!” He shouts, the only voice of reason as Magnus and Lup laugh.

“Have you been to the fucking moon?” 

“Taak, swear jar,” he points to the jar, a quarter of the way full. Taako and Lup rarely ever paid up, but the money went to a nice dinner out at the end of the year, so Barry kept trying. “You’re avoiding the question Barry,” he says. 

“And you’re being ridiculous. Besides, where would we get enough money to buy 28 pairs of moonshoes?” There’s a lull in the conversation as they all genuinely think about it.

“Rob a bank?”

“Tell Davenport it’s for something actually educational?”

“Con some suckers on the street?”

“Or we could, y’know, just _not_ do it,” Barry says. “Also, your ideas are all wrong - bank heists are too risky and public, Davenport is gonna be stingy with money after what Greg pulled, and we couldn’t get enough cash that way. If we were gonna do this, we’d take the money from the institute themselves, since we have easy access and know how to avoid the security cameras.”

“Damn Barry, didn’t know you had it in you!” Lup chuckles.

“BUT - we’re not going to do this, because it’s a bad idea and they don’t sell moonshoes in bulk,” he says decisively. “If any of you have a good idea, feel free to tell me.”

Taako passes the sandwiches around the table, but doesn’t give one to Barry. “No sandwiches for asshole fun ruiners.”

Lup snatches it from her brother and laughs. “Swear jar, Koko!”

-

He’s woken up by a knock on the door, and forces himself out of bed. There’s more knocking, probably from a young camper who’s homesick. They always are on the first night. He’s been there before, all he can do is comfort them and assure them they’re in good hands.

But when he opens up, it’s Lup on the other side of the door. She’s full of energy, bouncing on her heels with a wicked grin.

“Oh uh, hey Lup!” He says. “What’dya need?” 

“Okay so, I was just thinking about what we talked about at lunch - making tomorrow snazzier or whatever, and I had the best idea in the entire world actually? So, drop this bomb on you,” she takes a dramatic pause. “We make a punk rock song about the scientific method.”

Lup often leaves him speechless, but it’s rarely like this.

“I know, right? Lemme be clear about this, Barold, this isn’t a goof. I am one hundo percent serious about this,” she continues. “And I want you to help me make this happen. Music video and everything.”

“I mean, it’s a pretty tempting idea, but uh, you do realize I have absolutely no experience in making a music video? Let alone in one night?” He tells her. 

“Don’t worry your pretty little head about this,” she says, a sentence which definitely doesn’t make his stomach do flips and his heart skip a beat. “Just help me out with whatever you can. I’ve got a laughable amount of experience with iMovie, a cheap camera that’s fully charged, and an unshakable feeling that this is divine intervention. So, you in?”

When she says it like that, with a determined grin and a glint in her eye, he doesn’t think twice about his answer.

“Let’s do this.” 

-

She’s messing with some premade loops on Garageband, he’s hanging up bedsheets for a makeshift green screen. He pauses to consider how weird this entire thing is - why did she even come to him, why did she even have this idea, _why did he say yes?_ \- but he’s having fun and he’ll have regrets later. 

She quickly writes something down in her bright yellow notepad. “Hey, just say the first thing that comes to mind, how would you describe the scientific method?”

“It’s very scientific.”

And there’s a reason he doesn’t always say the first thing that comes to mind. Because sometimes you need to revise, or you end up with shit like that.

“That’s fucking amazing, Barry, holy-” she’s interrupted by her own laughter. “I’m totally using that.”

“Really?”

“Yeah!” She smiles and drums a simple beat. “It’s. Very. Scien. Tific.” 

And he erupts into a fit of giggles, because he’s tired and there is absolutely nothing that is funnier to him right now. 

  
-  


She watches the final cut once more, and can’t help but be proud of what they accomplished. It’s cheesy and it’s weird, but they actually did it. 

“Hey, Barry!” She says, but he doesn’t respond. Lup realizes he’s fallen asleep on her couch, probably while she was doing some editing. She doesn’t have the heart to wake him up, it’s her fault he’s sleep deprived. And maybe because he looks really calm while he’s asleep, she’s never seen him so peaceful. It’s… nice. And maybe she convinced him to wear punk rock makeup and it hasn’t all been washed off, and despite how ridiculous it is he still looks cute.

But just maybe, she tells herself as she places a blanket over him. Just maybe.

**Author's Note:**

> tell me if you liked it! comments are always appreciated.
> 
> i'm at @theadventurezoneoftruth on tumblr
> 
> this whole thing was sort of started by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7Vhz7Src_g this song, which is what barry n lup make.


End file.
